Industry Experts at DAM fest '09

The DigitAll Movement provides an interface for "Amateur" (a very relative and debatable term) filmmakers and "Professionals" (as controversial a term as 'amateur') filmmakers and industry-wallahs.

As our generation is constantly reminded of by our older acquaintances, our lives are so much adasdadasfsf fsfhyjh dg ergrgh sfsgtrthgrhf sfsdfrgegdgd..(that is how the tirade sounds like when you are humming your favourite tune or thinking about the feast you will devour later for dinner)

Jokes apart, creative expression has become more interesting and its materialisation far more convenient. At DAM fest '09, we celebrate the digital medium that has made this possible for us. And this is not restricted to just cinema. It is about New Media Art, Digital Photography, Digital Music and what-not. There is so much happening in this digital media industry that keeping tabs is a herculean task.

So, at the DAM fest, we have arranged interactive sessions with industry experts revolving around a plethora of topics so that you do not lose out on the prevalent and probable trends.

1) INTERACTIONS WITH:
Prahlad Kakkar, Advertising Guru
Madhur Bhandarkar, Filmmaker (Chandni Bar, Fashion, Traffic)

2) THE DIGITAL BUSINESS: DIGITAL THEATRE REVOLUTION
Speakers:
Dibakar Banerjee - Director of 'Khosla ka Ghosla' and 'Oye Lucky, Lucky Oye'

Kunal Roy Kapur - Director of 'The President is Coming'

Dr. Sunil Patil - Scrabble Entertainment, the only Digital Cinema Initiative (DCI) compliant deployment entity in India that has installed digital cinema systems in 40 multiplex screens(C)

Rajat Barjatya - Managing Director of Rajshri Media

3) FILM AS CATALYST FOR SOCIAL CHANGE
Speakers:
Anand Patwardhan - Documentary filmmaker and activist

Rajeev Masand - Film critic on CNN-IBN

K. Hariharan - Director of LV Prasad Film and Television Academy

4) DIGITAL GOES REGIONAL
Speakers:
Bipin Nadkarni - Ad-filmmaker and Marathi filmmaker (Uttarayan - Journey to the Other Side)

Ringo - Bengali filmmaker

V. K Prakash - Bengaluru-based filmmaker who made the 1st digital Malayalam film 'Moonammathoral' and is set to make a feature film in Kannada. Also directed 'Freaky Chakra'

Haboam Paban Kumar - Documentary filmmaker. His work, AFSPA 1958, received accolades at the 6th Karachi International Film Festival 2006, John Abraham Film Festival 2006 in Kerala, the Mumbai International Film Festival and in the 10th Islamia International Film Festival of Egypt in 2006.

K. Hariharan - National Award-winning tamil film director and Director of LV Prasad Film & TV Academy

5) ANIMATION, SFX & ITS BUSINESS IN INDIA
Speakers:
Gitanjali Rao - Independent animator and illustrator who has won awards for her film 'Printed Rainbow'

Arnab Chaudhari - Making his directorial debut with UTV Productions' 'Arjun' this year

Joy Mukherjee - Creative Director of Zee International, an expert in special effects

Throughout Feb 1-3, the digital medium beckons you to the Symbiosis Institute of Media & Communication.
For further details, visit http://www.thedamfest.com/ or e-mail register@thedamfest.com.

Love at First Sight with Cinema

Talk. Jabber. Blabber. Chatter. Rant. Gibber. Prattle. Blether. Burble. Natter. Drone On.
It is largely an unacknowledged fact that gossip is a great stress buster. Ask any woman or more importantly, any man who will vehemently deny until his last breath, the human male species’ natural proclivity for “information-sharing”.
And that social activity is what we do when we get enough time to breathe and talk shop with fellow filmmakers. Grumbling over the fact that filmmaking doesn’t pay...Bashing up a new film...Arguing over choice of actors...Debating the need for censorship...et cetera et cetera..
Helps a lot to know that you are not the only “unemployed” wanna-be filmmaker who wonders how his life would have been if he had taken the cushy job his engineering degree had offered him. Moments of doubt tempered with clouds of regret.
In such bursts of vicissitude, one forgets the newness of the relationship with the filmmaking process. The first time you held the camera and you could sense that it fitted, that it would be your extended eye for the decades to follow...the time when you watched a movie with friends and thought all the while, “I know I could do this better” and went ahead to prove it. The sense of achievement you felt at the age of seven when you imitated your loud neighbour and your mother did not admonish you because she was busy laughing with awe.
Recall the first moment you looked beyond the line of vision. Bask in the spotlight.
And here’s a secret prayer of thanks that you are where you wanted to be.

The new generation mobile film maker

Emerging technologies have certainly made life entertaining. The long queue in front of theatres and lack of time will no longer dissuade you from watching films, your favourite hobby, as it will be right there, in your pockets, in your mobile phone and captured using the same medium.

Mobile phones have now become the latest outlet for those creative minds that had hitherto been restricted by technical and financial constraints. Be it a birthday party or a college function, owners of every mobile phone equipped with a camera captures videos but few take it beyond just documenting an event.

With technologically advanced mobiles entering the market, capturing feature length films have become easier. Marcello Mencarini and Barbara Seghezzi from Italy claimed to have made the first feature-length documentary titled New Love Meeting in 2006 using a mobile phone. The 93 minutes documentary was completely shot using a Nokia N90.

India, as always, is not far behind in adopting new trends especially when it comes to film-making. Recently, a team of two, Satheesh Kalathil and Sujith made a 25-minute mobile documentary Veenavadanam. They are now in the process of making a full-length film called Jalachayam.

Though many argue that this type of filmmaking will mar the quality of the product with lack of technical finesse, it is widely accepted that it is the most convenient mode of film making for the fast moving generation. Like the famed film festivals, there has also been mobile film making competitions in the past. In 2006, Discovery Channel in collaboration with Nokia had launched the Mobile Film Makers Award. Then, there was the Nokia-Whistling Woods Mobile Film Contest in 2007. The newest in the league is the Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication in Pune that will host the digital entertainment festival, DigitAll Movement (DAM) from February 1-3. “We have tapped in on this latest trend and included a segment called ‘On the Spot Mobile Film Contest’ where participants will have to shoot a film using mobile phones and upload it on a computer”, explains Shagufta Ahmed, coordinator of the event.

“Now it isn't necessary to have expensive equipment to make a film. The mobile is a relatively easy and cheap medium for showcasing talents of a new breed of creative thinkers. All you need is your mobile phone and your imagination and voila, you have your film!” says Divya Nair, a Mass Communication student from the Mumbai University. Competitions like DAM certainly give these youngsters the confidence and a platform that allows possibilities like never before.

With technology and people constantly on the move, mobiles have revolutionised the communication. With films being captured on this device, the revolution has reached its zenith. The new generation of mobile filmmakers is all geared up. Their success stories are just a click away!
-Sajna Menon

THE COMEBACK

Who would have thought that a chicken could symbolise a strong motivated person who achieves her goals despite all obstacles? Well that is the story of The Running Chicken screened at the Digital All Movement (DAM) festival last January. Organized by the Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication, DAM saw a plethora of movies screened from different parts of the world and the country. There were films from different walks of life, depicting different aspects of the human mind. The movies were categorized into fiction, non fiction, animation and special effects.

Socially relevant issues like child prostitution, perils of widows, Pune traffic, autism and the efforts gone in chasing Angelina Jolie during her stay in Pune for “A Mighty Heart” were a part of the non fiction entries. There were movies that spoke about Subramania Siva the freedom fighter in Thangal Anbulla, and some like Mudcake by Gautam Chhabra that depicted the story of Junta Colony in Chandigarh.

A large number of entries came from Beacon House University in Lahore, Pakistan. Of which, Rosh -e- Mehshr showed the myriad issues of insanity, torture, salvation and Too Close to Home by Khurram Mugal depicted the story of two boys about to violate the chastity of a girl.
There were also films which depicted the simple joys of life. A Gift of Art was one such film where two painters decide to complete a painting and Maya which talks about the schizophrenic tendencies that arise out of loneliness in a nine year old girl.

Under the animation category there were movies like Lip Jokes and Hnugli. Lip Jokes from Slovenia spoke about blond girls, while Hnugli by Hjalti Hjálmarsson from Iceland revealed the attributes of various movie genres, portrayed through a beaver.

Under the special effects category there was The Comeback by Abhinav Tripathi and Janani by Siddhrath Gautam Singh. While the former shows the perfect comeback to rhetorical questions the latter tries to marry various myths about the creation of the universe to the idea of motherhood and childbirth and looks at God the Creator as a woman.

This year the DAM Fest promises bigger surprises for film buffs and fans of the digital media. DAM has move beyond films to cover everything digital. This includes digital photography, art and music and workshops on the same.
The movement has begun.
-Devina Sengupta